In Full Bloom

I hold the crumpled words under my tongue

as the rain patters on my window outside

I pay it no mind

caught up in this twenty-something disease

and redefining my sense of self

keeps the time occupied

All this responsibility and obligation,

to sign my life on the dotted line

for the doctors and the collectors

still light-headed from the fall

and tingling with erotic anticipation

of writing under a darker name

freedom from moral institution

that may have shunned this blossoming child.